This invention relates to the art of artificial respiration, and is more particularly concerned with mouth-to-mouth or mouth- to-nose resuscitation.
It is now recognized that, in many rescue attempts, manual methods of manipulating the victim's body to restore oxygen to the victim are inadequate to ventilate the victim's lungs to the extent necessary to effect a recovery. Consequently, it is now widely preferred that the power and substantial capacity of the rescuer's lungs be utilized to rapidly deliver large volumes of air under sufficient pressure to adequate lung inflation of the victim, and hence there is more and more admonition to use the mouth-to-mouth method. In such method it is only necessary to place the victim on his back, open his mouth to check airway obstruction, draw chin forward with thumb, pinch off nostrils, extend (straighten) the neck, tilt the head backward, press on forehead, make air tight seal with lips around mouth opening, and proceed immediately to evenly blow a deep breath into him. In the case of drowning, particularly, the victim's very immediate need is oxygen, and since the time required to supply the oxygen is at an absolute minimum when mouth-to-mouth resuscitation is administered, dramatic rescues have been effected by this method.
Notwithstanding the widely recognized advantages of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, many would-be rescuers are understandably reluctant to employ the method because of the intimate personal contact required and the ofttimes repulsive condition or appearance of the victim.
In certain rescue operations, the victim is injured in the mouth or closely adjacent areas, such as severe cuts, which prevents mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and leaves mouth-to-nose resuscitation as an alternate possibility. However, mouth-to-nose resuscitation requires the same personal contact which makes the rescuer reluctant to participate.
A number of prior art devices have been invented for use in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. However, the art devices use a number of rigid or semi-rigid structures which do not provide an effective seal to insure that the air is blown into the victim's lungs, thus, allowing some of the air to escape around the victim's lips and reduce the effectiveness of the method.